Polk County did a number of things well Friday night against Mitchell.
The few miscues the Wolverines did make, though, allowed a key Western Highlands Conference win to slip away.
The Mountaineers took advantage of a pair of Polk errors and its own good pitching to earn a 3-2 win in the WHC matchup at Polk County.
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Polk County (4-4, 2-1) got a solid pitching performance from senior Morgan Groves, who struck out five and allowed eight hits in his seven innings of work. But the Mountaineers (1-4, 1-1) did just enough damage in the third inning to earn the win.
With one out in the inning, singles by leadoff hitter Ryan McKinney and Justin Greene and a double by Lyle Tipton gave Mitchell its first run and put runners on second and third. Groves then struck out Chris Gillespie and induced a slow grounder from Jamison Burleson. But a miscue on the grounder allowed the ball to get away at first and let both runners score, giving Mitchell a 3-0 cushion.
Polk County loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom of the fifth and seemed poised for a rally. After Greene got the first out of the inning via strikeout, J.D. Edwards drew a walk to force in one run. Groves then dropped a slow grounder down the third-base line that Greene charged off the mound to corral and force out Holden Owens at home. Burleson tried to also retire Groves at first, but his throw sailed wide, allowing Bryce Martin to race home from second and make it 3-2. A walk to Dequan Gary loaded the bases again, but Burleson came on to pitch at that point and got a strikeout to end the inning.
“I thought what you saw from us is about as good as it is going to get this year, and we will come out on the winning side more often than not,” said Polk County head coach Ty Stott. “We can tweak it a bit and be a little smarter.
“We’re still not hitting and we’re not putting the ball in play with two strikes. That was very good pitching tonight, but we made him a little better. We just didn’t put any pressure on him. We had chances and it just didn’t happen. He did a good job and Morgan did a good job. We just got beat by a good pitcher.”
Polk County stranded eight runners on base, leaving runners on third in the first, third, fifth and sixth innings. Inning-ending strikeouts ended three of those four scoring opportunities.
Owens, Martin, Edwards, Tyler Campbell and Mark Mazzilli all had hits for Polk County, which hosts Mountain Heritage on Monday.
